Have you made up your mind? Are you going to sign up for the personally controlled e-health record (PCEHR)? It’s got a lot of potential, but the devil is in the detail. I feel six issues need to be sorted out as soon as possible to make it easier for consumers to take part:

• Confidential patient data is potentially unsecure in the PCEHR Govt cloud
• Too much risk & liability for health professionals
• Uploaded PCEHR data will be used by Govt for other purposes incl data mining
• 5-15 minutes extra per patient are needed to upload and manage online PCEHR data
• Longer consults create higher fees & increased costs for patients
• More red tape, difficult to understand rules and regulations